Comedian Robin Ince: ‘I hope I’ve caused an evolution’

Robin Ince’s In And Out Of His Mind focuses on the human brain (Picture: Camera Press/Rob Greig/Time Out)

There is a thrilling coterie of comedians – Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey and Tim Minchin among them – who have a sense of rational, scientific wonder hard-wired into their DNA.

But the one most likely to have his head in a pile of books is Robin Ince.

Over the years he has helped live comedy fans laugh at (and understand) particle physics through his regular collaborations with Professor Brian Cox; revealed second-hand books as delightful cabinets of curiosities in his legendary Book Club; and, with his festive 9 Lessons And Carols For Godless People shows, given atheists something to do at Christmas.

His current slate of projects, which, aside from his regular Infinite Monkey Cage podcast with Cox, includes three club nights, one mini-tour with Josie Long (a mash-up show of sorts) and a proper solo tour in March, shows his appetite for educating himself – and us – remains unabated.

‘Boredom shocks me,’ says Ince, his 44-year-old brain fizzing so much that being in his company is rather electrifying. (He also admits to being an insomniac.) ‘That’s something I have desperately, genuinely achieved – an avoidance of boredom.’

When we meet, he’s just come off stage after one of those aforementioned club nights, Pointless Anger, Righteous Ire, a riotous evening chewing the fat with fellow comedian Michael Legge.

This one has a cerebral edge but is more about just relishing the art and absurdities of a plain old rant. ‘We wanted to celebrate that old thing of, if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention,’ says Ince.

Another of his new offerings will reinvent his much-loved Book Club night: Dirty Book Club will present ‘a fantastic selection of weird books of sexual advice and sexual romance from the 19th century onwards.’

Then there’s Ince’s big new solo show, Robin Ince: In And Out Of His Mind, which will see him scrutinise the human brain.

Science chums Robin Ince and Brian Cox on stage (Picture: BBC)

‘I ended my last show talking about how birth is painful because of the size of the baby’s skull and the brain inside it,’ says Ince, ‘so to waste it would be a tremendously rude gesture.’

It will take in the ancient Greeks, trepanning, Freud and the ways we understand ourselves, as well as, he says, ‘how consciousness is the very thin icing on the rest of our brain’.

Ince started his career writing for The 11 O’Clock Show before going on to write for and perform with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. A questing, curious spirit has been present in his work ever since he decided, towards the end of his twenties, to do shows about things that fascinated him as a child.

First he was poking fun at pseudo-science; then he tackled the much harder job of making jokes about more noble topics such as quantum physics.

Nowadays, he regularly teams up with the biggest names in science (aside from Cox, he’s shared the stage with Simon Singh and Marcus de Sautoy), has delivered a TED talk and gets heckles (or as he describes them, ‘footnotes’) about things such as muons and gluons.

‘People are so scared of asking scientists questions,’ says Ince, ‘but if someone has knowledge, they really want to share what they know. Simon Singh is fantastic at expressing ideas; Brian Cox wants to paint big, beautiful pictures.’

Ince reckons his science shows have evolved over the years. And his endeavours have caused an evolution in the comedy scene, too. Now you can catch past collaborators of his doing their own breakway comedy/science shows (Festival Of The Spoken Nerd is about to tour nationally).

There’s also the likes of Stargazing Live, featuring Cox and Dara O’Briain having fun and staring at the sky in a primetime BBC2 slot, which would probably not have been mooted without Ince proving there was an appetite for this kind of meeting of minds.

‘I hope I’ve caused an evolution,’ he says. ‘I was looking at the media, telly, and I think we’re underselling ourselves. There are so many bland things, a low-level hum of utilitarian joy where everything is just about OK. But people are passionate about ideas – whether you’re talking about science, philosophy or history.

‘Stand-up can be in danger of being too middle-of-the-road: there’s space for the proverbial One Directions but the worst thing that can happen in comedy is people being too scared to change their act. It’s painful but you have to risk failure.’